


No Day Off for Heroes

by Manu



Category: Fantastic Four (2015), The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb)
Genre: Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, M/M, Unbeta'd, i didn't have time to rewatch the movies so i'm sorry for any inconsistencies :/, inktober prompts, personal fictober, spideytorch - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-25 01:35:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16187360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Manu/pseuds/Manu
Summary: Personal "Fictober" challenge of takingInktober's promptsand writing something short for each and posting them daily. Ships, fandoms and everything else will vary. Patently unbeta'd.Day 3: roasted





	No Day Off for Heroes

**Author's Note:**

> Personal "Fictober" challenge of taking [Inktober's prompts](https://twitter.com/inktober/status/1035886145173745664) and writing something short for each and posting them daily. Ships, fandoms and everything else will vary. Patently unbeta'd.
> 
>  
> 
> Day 3: roasted

It was Johnny’s first day off in ages. He didn’t look it, but when Reed got into boss mode he really was kind of a tyrant. It was also pretty obvious that the PR people had gotten into his head. He kept repeating that they needed to be ready for their “unveiling,” their “presentation.” Johnny feared they were actually gonna throw some sort of debutante ball thing.

All in all, it was nice to just hang around the city and to be wearing regular, civilian clothes again. He basically had been sleeping on the suit these last few days, a part of Reed's "always prepared" training regime.

He was approaching a hot dog cart when he heard someone yell:

“Yo, it’s Spidey!”

He immediately looked up. And yes, there he was, swinging hundreds of feet above the heads of the small crowd that had quickly gathered. He looked unreal. It was easy for Johnny to picture flying people, especially when he was one. But the swinging, the constant falling and then rising with the help of those thin web-strings made his chest hurt when he thought about it for too long, and seeing it live in action was worse. It was almost as weird and unsettling as seeing Reed stretch parts of him that should never be stretched.

What Johnny couldn’t believe was how he had forgotten about Spider-Man. He had been all over the news when he first appeared in the midst of that whole thing with the lizard man and his gas, and then again with the electric guy, the mecha-rhino-suit dude, and bunch of other times in between and since. He had been gaining quite the colorful line-up of nemeses, which Johnny somehow envied. All he had to show for himself so far was a drinking buddy gone berserk after being another dimension. And then there were all the people who showed up in those very same news, being deeply thankful for being saved. The city loved him, despite the constant barrage of negativity from certain newspapers and blog sites. Johnny had never managed to save anyone. Well, the world, but only in that abstract sci-fi action movie kind of way, and it had costed him dearly…

Luckily, a loud cackling derailed his train of thought. An actual cackle. Not far behind Spider-Man, a flying dude wearing a green bird suit with huge wings and carrying a sack seemed to be chasing after him, cackling. Johnny couldn’t get past the cackling. With an impossible spin and the help of a well-aimed web, Spidey sent something flying against the bird dude’s chest. The crowd cheered. Johnny joined in, realizing that most of his expectations of being a superhero came from Spider-Man, who for damn sure had not shown up to any debutante balls.

Spider-Man kept throwing things at the bird dude—the _old_ bird dude—who was becoming quickly adept at dodging them. Johnny grew restless. His restlessness was proved right when the bird dude had enough time between having stuff thrown at him to pull out a small sort of bazooka. The weapon shot what looked like a bunch of small pumpkins. Johnny was able to notice this because they were getting closer… because the bird dude had shot at the crowd, not at Spider-Man.

Before Johnny had time to react and start to run away with the rest of the crowd, Spider-Man had already shot a protective net that caught the pumpkins, which exploded safely, well above the now applauding crowd. Spidey landed on the side of a building, sticking to it.

“Behind you!” Johnny shouted, realizing that there was no way that Spider-Man would hear him from that high and over the noise of the crowd and the approaching sirens.

But somehow, Spider-Man turned around. He looked at Johnny, instead of at where the other pumpkins had come from. The bombs barely missed but were close enough to impact the wall close to him. Debris did hit him and that, combined with the loudness of the explosion, knocked him unconscious. Spider-Man began to fall.

“Ah, shit! Shit! Shit!” Johnny said, already sprinting.

He exploded into a furious ball of flame and took off. He hadn’t even thought about it. The urgency of the situation and the constant training had made using his powers more instinct than anything else. He flew up as fast as he could towards the falling figure of Spidey. He half-hoped for him to wake up and simply shoot up a life-saving web, but that did not happen.

It was surreal, a dream. Johnny was flying as fast as he could to intercept the seemingly slow-motion fall of Spider-Man.

Before his mind could fully register it, his body had caught Spider-Man and was already slowly descending with him on his arms. Spider-Man was tall and slim, not very heavy, the suit looked homemade but stylish. The top part of it had been ripped revealing wild, long hair. The rest of it was burning away slowly, exposing white skin underneath. Johnny turned down the heat way down. Their descent accelerated.

This was the first time Johnny had properly saved someone. He could finally say he used his powers outside of training, used them not for his own amusement, not to fight a villain, and most importantly, not as a weapon being aimed by someone else. All that provided that Spider-Man didn’t die in his arms, of course.

He landed as softly as he could manage carrying an unconscious person. Soon after, Spider-Man was lying on the ground in a hidden alley, still out of it and frankly looking a bit roasted. Johnny’s hand went instinctively to his pocket. He needed to call Sue or Reed or even Ben. He didn’t wanna risk it by taking him to a hospital and have his identity revealed. His hand touched bare skin.

Oh.

Oh, no…

His very much non-fireproof civilian clothes had been incinerated the moment he had flamed on.

“What the fuck?” a voice said from the floor.

Johnny looked down to find a very much awake Spider-Man staring at his very much naked body. Not the first meeting he might have had in mind.

“Yo,” he tried.  

Spider-Man did not answer.  

“I’m, uh, Johnny Storm,” he, on the other hand, couldn’t shut up. “The Human Torch! Hi, uh, you were falling and, well, I flew up and saved you?”

Spider-Man stood up, not bothered by his injuries. Somehow Johnny could tell a quizzical look was on his face.

“It was pretty dope, actually,” Johnny crossed his arms over his chest, regretting it immediately: not where his hands should be at that moment. “Pretty damn heroic if you ask me,” he boasted almost sincerely. He was confident on his body and may as well just own the whole thing.

“You can fly,” Spider-Man finally said, “and you need to be naked to do so or…?”

“No, no, no,” Johnny replied. “It’s just a side effect. Look.”

He flamed on. Spider-Man’s inexpressive mask looked surprised and impressed. 

“Huh,” he said.

Johnny grinned. He flamed off. Spider-Man scratched his head.

“Well, thanks, uh… Torch? Were you supposed to tell me your real name as well?”

“Oh, uh, you know what? I’m not actually sure. I’ll have to ask…”

A sudden thought of him in a luchador mask crossed his mind. By the time he came back to reality, Spider-Man was already started to climb up a building.

“Wait, you leaving?”

“Yeah, I got a senior citizen I need to beat up, dude.”

“Your wounds…”

“It’ll be fine,” he shrugged. “I can feel them healing up already. Sorry. That’s gross, probably. Anyway, eat your vegetables! Find some clothes! Toodles!”

“Wait!” Johnny called, feeling a bit stupid and vulnerable. His state of undress was not helping. Spider-Man waited. Johnny inhaled deeply and said: “Listen, I’m kinda new to this whole hero-ing thing and, well, I could use some advice. Normally I’ll just be winging but, I mean, things have happened and I…”

He paused.

“Right,” Spider-Man said, coming down. “I know a thing or two about just winging it. I’m awesome at winging it, actually. Wing-Man, they used to call me. Or maybe they were talking about those nights at the bars... Anyway, I won’t bore you with tales from the flight academy days. Oh!” he hit his forehead with his hand.  

Johnny blinked and waited.

“But seriously, I can’t tell you much, kid,” Spider-Man stopped for a moment, either amused at his use of the word ‘kid’ or thinking of what to say next and how. The mask made it difficult to tell. “I lost someone. He was just the greatest… He… well, he said to me once that… With great power comes great responsibility,” he said, and looked as if he himself had just realized something. That mask was widely inconsistent on what it gave away. “I’m wildly paraphrasing, but yeah… That helps some?”

It did, Johnny thought. He nodded.

“Looking forward to see your work! Let’s collab sometime soon, Torchie! I’ll be in touch!”

He watched as Spider-Man climbed the building back up again and swung away. A gentle breeze reminded him of his clothing predicament. The sun was setting. A shiver ran through his whole body. Good thing the temperature hadn’t dropped while he was talking to Spider-Man. Talking to Spider-Man…

He smiled.

He frowned.

He needed to find clothes stat. He wasn’t about to stroll around New York in his current state and he quickly dismissed the idea of flaming on and flying home. He needed to keep a low profile or Reed would have his head, or rather he’d had Sue have his head.

Speaking of head, something fell on his. Something soft. A bundle of old clothes wrapped in web. He looked up and only found an ever-darkening sky.

 

He spent the rest of his day off in his room at the compound. Listening to music and pondering… He was still wearing the clothes from the bundle. They were just the right length although a bit tight on him. He could picture a hipster-skater-type wearing them. They smelled nice…

“Something you want to share?” Sue said from the doorway. She was holding a tablet. She entered the room and sat next to him in bed.

Johnny took the tablet. It displayed the trending news of the day.

“A NEW HERO IN TOWN?: “HUMAN TORCH” SAVES SPIDER-MAN,” proclaimed The Daily Bugle.

“AN EVER GROWING MENACE!: SPIDER-MAN AND HIS DANGEROUS NEW PARTNER” backtracked the Bugle an hour later.

“NEW HANDSOME CHAMPION TURNS UP THE HEAT. GET ALL THE DEETS HERE,” a dozen gossip blogs promised.

“SPIDER-MAN FIGHTS NEW VILLAIN AND TRAGEDY STRIKES. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT WILL ASTOUND YOU!” Buzzfeed baited.

Johnny looked at the pictures accompanying the articles and posts. Amateurish pics from the crowd were plentiful, but his eyes quickly locked on the extremely clear, professional ones. He particularly liked the one of Spider-Man straight up lifting a car and throwing it at the bird dude, who protected himself with his metal-ish wings. Crazy angles showed off the fight between the recently-baptized Vulture and Spider-Man, which Johnny was happy to see had ended favorably for the hero. Well, somewhat. Oscorp wouldn’t be pressing charges, he read. All that work and those injuries for nothing…

Or maybe not, he thought, remembering exploding pumpkins.

“Reed is upset,” Sue said, not looking very affected by it. “They’re re-scheduling, re-organizing and re-planning. I heard the word synergy and bolted.”

“No debutante ball then,” Johnny said absentmindedly, looking at himself in the screen taking flight. He wondered if anyone could tell that he was naked under all those flames. He certainly could, but none of the articles said anything.

“At least they guessed your codename right,” she commented. “Told you it was too obvious. Maybe that’s a good thing.”

Johnny’s eyes narrowed, and then he began scrolling up and down the pages. Following backlinks and googling names. Those angles _were crazy_. It was a difficult search, since lots of sites just copied things without credit or attribution. Finally, he found what he was looking for:

PHOTOS BY PETER PARKER

 

**Author's Note:**

> [:)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Okn0WpJqgHE)


End file.
